


Our First Christmas

by Ultra



Series: Moments in Time [37]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Children of Characters, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Eliot Spencer Singing, F/M, Family Fluff, Grumpy Eliot Spencer, Parenthood, Sleepiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-16
Updated: 2012-12-16
Packaged: 2020-03-05 12:54:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18829066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Eliot & Parker's first Christmas with their new baby.





	Our First Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> originally written for meg63005 on LiveJournal, based on her prompt meme.

They had spent Christmas Eve together as a team, but the actual day was going to be different. Hardison was headed home to see Nana, Nate and Sophie wanted a private romantic Christmas, and Eliot and Parker were all ready for the first Christmas with their baby daughter.

“Aren’t you done yet?” Parker yelled from the living room, bouncing a sleepy Eloise on her knee.

“If I was done, I’d be in there,” Eliot reminded her, trying his best not to growl, though it was tempting.

His temper was slipping just a little after today. Not that he didn’t enjoy spending Christmas Eve with the team that had easily become his family, it had just been a lot of work. Though the others pitched in to a degree, it was Eliot who did the majority of the cooking, and at the same time he was helping Parker with Ellie, it had just been a tough day. Now it was getting late, the baby ought to be in bed, but the leftovers needed properly wrapping and storing away, and the kitchen was still in some disarray from the prep Eliot had done here before they went over to Nate’s place to actually cook the Christmas meal. He really didn’t want to leave it until tomorrow, he wanted it done now.

“Eloise says hurry up Daddy, I wanna go to bed!” Parker told him, just as he shut the refrigerator door and turned to check he’d remembered everything.

Eliot sighed, tossed the dishtowel by the drainer and walked through to the living room.

“Eloise has learned to talk pretty fast,” he teased Parker for her fib. “This morning all I got was a gurgle and a laugh.”

“Sing me a song, Daddy!” Parker said in a high-pitched squeaky voice, whilst holding the child of six months in front of her face.

She peered around then with a grin on her face as she watched Eliot roll his eyes and reach for his guitar. It was a deal they made when preparing for this Christmas, to let Eloise experience all the wonders that Parker already knew existed this time of year, and a few more she had discovered since she and Eliot got together. Last Christmas Eve, the thief had been six months pregnant, and equal parts and happy and sad about it, for various reasons. She vowed she couldn’t go to bed because she would never sleep, she just felt too uncomfortable. It made her sad because she knew Santa wouldn’t come if she didn’t sleep. Eliot had resisted the urge to give her a reality check then only because she looked so pathetically sad. (Even this year when he had tried to correct her, she just covered Eloise’s ears and scowled). Instead he opted to sing her a lullaby until she drifted off with her head in his lap. Since December began she had been promising baby Ellie that Daddy would sing them to sleep this year, just like the last, and Eliot wasn’t about to back out on a promise, even if it had been made for him rather than by him.

Propped on the edge of the armchair, he faced his precious girls curled up on the couch, and softly played and sang Silent Night. Parker wasn’t sure she liked that song before she heard Eliot’s rendition. It was so slow, she preferred the upbeat songs, though she understood now she had listened that it was a lullaby about the baby Jesus. Now it became a song to send her own baby off to sleep and it certainly seemed to be working already. In fact, Parker’s own eyelids felt heavy as she tried to focus on her lover a few feet away, playing the last few chords and singing the final line over again.

There was a smile on Eliot’s lips when he put down the guitar and found both his girls were pretty much asleep already.

“C’mon, babe. Let me take her,” he whispered to Parker when he reached for Ellie and her grip automatically tightened on the infant.

Finally with his baby daughter in his arms, Eliot carried her off to the bedroom and placed her in the crib. Tucking her blankets in around her, he stayed a moment just to stare down at her. Six months in he was still amazed by the little creation that was his Eloise. He and Parker hadn’t planned a baby, not at all, but damn if he wasn’t glad to have her now she was here.

Wandering back through to the living room, Eliot picked Parker off the couch next and pulled her close. Her own arms went naturally around his neck and her eyelids fluttered a little.

“C’mon, darlin’,” he smiled at her. “We don’t get you to bed then Santa ain’t gonna come on by.” He rolled his eyes at his own comment, knowing it was dumb to encourage her, but sometimes he just couldn’t help it.

Parker mumbled incoherently against his chest, and yet was awake enough to clap her hands just before they cleared the door. It was one of the better enhancements Hardison had made to their apartment, Eliot thought, as both the lights on the Christmas tree and the main lights of the room dimmed down and then went out.

They barely made it into bed before midnight, but that was okay. Parker was soundly asleep in Eliot’s arms when he realised it was Christmas morning, albeit just by a minute or two. He looked down at his lover and then across at the crib at the end of the bed. It had to be some sort of Christmas miracle that he had come this far, that he had the greatest gifts a man could ask for right here in this room.

“Merry Christmas, Eliot,” he said to himself in a whisper, before closing his eyes, and letting sleep claim him too.


End file.
